The Ministry of Labour

It was clearly the announcement of the intended creation of the new ministry that upset Askwith so much he had to forgo a day’s shooting; it was going to have huge implications for his department. The idea of setting up the ministry had been aired more than a decade earlier, but it had been resisted by Llewellyn Smith who thought it undesirable that there should be a split between the commercial and labour aspects of economic questions. ¹ Pressure for a separate ministry from the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress grew during the war.